The Weston at Work banner on the Coley Barn's weathered plank door, with an iron wagon wheel leaning against it.

Visit and help

You've followed the river online. Now come and try the work.

Visit

Weston at Work, in the Coley Barn

Open
Thursdays and the first and last Sundays of the month, 1–4 pm
Admission
$5 adults, $3 ages 5–17; under 5 and members free
Where
104 Weston Road, Weston (parking off High Acre Road)
Access
The barn's first floor is accessible.
Next door
The Coley House, restored to the 1940s, on a guided tour. The Coley House online
School groups
The third-grade visit uses the barn's farm-history stations. School programs
Plan your visit →

Only in the barn

What's waiting for you

  • The working loom, once the living of a widowed mother of four
  • Carding wool, and weaving at the community wall loom
  • The rope and pulley: haul a hay bale up yourself
  • The rare Bradley axe tools
  • The Lockwood hay baler and the farming implements
  • The cider presses and the cidering display
  • A horse-drawn delivery wagon and its milk cans
  • The Weston Toy Company sign
  • The panels: Crops and Production, Manufacturing, Textiles, the Lockwood farm, and people of African descent at work
The textile room: a large wooden floor loom with blue warp threads among exhibit panels. A boxy white delivery wagon with red spoked wheels and milk cans on the barn floor. Illustrated panels on Weston's agricultural past above an old wooden plough.

Help

Keep the barn at work

  • Become a member

    Members visit the barn and the Coley House free, all year.

    Join

  • Adopt an object

    The Bradley tools, the farm machines and the loom all need care to stay on show. Give toward the barn's collection.

    Give

  • Help at the hands-on stations

    Children card wool, weave and haul a hay bale in the barn. On open days those stations need friendly helpers.

    Volunteer

  • Help us find out

    Many of the photographs here raise questions: who is this, where was that mill? If you know, or would like to help research, tell us.

    Email us

The building

The Coley Barn

David Dimon Coley built the barn in the early 1880s, to replace one lost to fire. Like the barn before it, it was a large storage barn for hay and grain, with an attached horse stable and livestock shed.

“Weston at Work” was curated by Dr. Daryn Reyman-Lock, with exhibit design by Scott Kuykendall and exhibit interactives by former executive director, Samantha Fargione.

“Weston at Work” is supported in part by grants and donations from the following organizations: CT Humanities, the Daniel E. Offutt, III Charitable Trust, the Twenty-Seven Foundation, Elizabeth Raymond Ambler Trust, Flagstar Bank, Kiwanis Club of Weston and over 25 private donors.